Beartooth Highway crosses into Montana at the pass
— — the line in the sky where one state hands off to the next.
Not only on a wall.
“The state-line sign on US 212 stands a little below the high point of Beartooth Pass, 10,947 feet above sea level, in a tundra basin scattered with snowmelt tarns. Wyoming holds the eastern climb up from Cooke City's edge; Montana takes the road north toward Red Lodge through a series of switchbacks cut into the Beartooth Plateau. The pass is open only from late May to mid-October. The crossing is brief, undramatic, and one of the highest paved state-line transits in the country. from the studio
Beartooth Highway crosses into Montana at the pass, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Beartooth Pass carries U.S. Route 212 across the Wyoming-Montana state line at 10,947 feet, the high point of the Beartooth Highway and one of the highest paved through-passes in the United States. The road climbs out of Park County, Wyoming, through Shoshone National Forest, crests the plateau in a tundra basin scattered with kettle lakes, then drops north into Custer Gallatin National Forest in Carbon County, Montana. The Beartooth Highway connects Cooke City at the northeast corner of Yellowstone to Red Lodge, Montana, a distance of about 68 miles, and is designated an All-American Road by the Federal Highway Administration.
The pass is closed by snow most of the year. The Wyoming and Montana departments of transportation typically open the road around Memorial Day weekend and close it in mid-October, though heavy June storms can shut the crest for days at a time even in summer. Snowbanks along the shoulder near the pass routinely stand five to ten feet high through July. Late August into early September is the most reliable window: thaw is complete, wildflowers on the plateau are at peak, and afternoon thunderstorms have eased.
The state-line marker sits a short walk from a paved pullout near the top of the pass, a few hundred feet below the true high point at the Beartooth Pass summit lot. Most travellers stop briefly for the sign, then continue to the broader overlook at the Top of the World store on the Wyoming side or the West Summit pullouts on the Montana side. There are no services at the pass itself; the nearest fuel and food are in Cooke City to the southwest and Red Lodge to the northeast. Cell service is unreliable to absent.